Posted at 2:00 p.m.
In a text of May 25, the activist of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) Étienne-Alexandre Beauregard1criticizes the nationalism of Éric Duhaime. He uses the opposition of the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ) to Bill 96 as a pretext to conclude that “caquiste nationalism” is the only one to rally a majority of Quebecers. But what is “caquist nationalism”?
Freshly elected in 2018, François Legault told Radio-Canada: “Quebec has all the rights. “We will not learn it until later, but the formula, which recalls that of Louis XIV, “The State is me”, will become the doctrine of governance of the CAQ. If the Sun King reigned from the top of an absolute monarchy, the Prime Minister Plenipotentiary of Quebec resorted to more modern but equally liberticidal legislative devices: Article 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, called ” notwithstanding clause”, and section 118 of the Quebec law on public health.
The Notwithstanding Clause
At the start of the term, Bill 21 gives us a foretaste of this “caquist nationalism”. In its wording, the law on secularism will neutralize most of the rights protected by the Canadian and Quebec Charters by means of the “notwithstanding” clause, considered as a “nuclear option” as its use is extremely serious. The objective of the operation? Prevent the law from being challenged on the grounds that it violates Charter rights. The rights to life, integrity, freedom of conscience and religion, dignity, among others, are invalidated. It will be remembered that, until the CAQ came to power, Quebec governments defended the right of individuals to challenge laws they considered unjust. The CAQ does precisely the opposite, it deprives them of this right. The contours of “caquist nationalism” are taking shape.
The declaration of a health emergency
During his term of office, the arrival of the coronavirus leads to the declaration of a health emergency, under article 118 of the Public Health Act. Individual freedoms are still suspended and flouted. Curfews, widespread confinements, closure of businesses and schools. Children are deprived of education and physical activity. Autonomous seniors are under house arrest like criminals. Democracy is suspended; the police involved. Billions are spent out of control. The opposition parties endorse these abuses, except Duhaime’s PCQ, the only conscientious objector on the political spectrum.
The “nuclear option” as a preventive measure
At the end of its mandate, the Legault government did it again with Bill 96 on the French language. A new fact is that the “notwithstanding clause” is invoked in section 118 as a preventive measure, something never before seen in Canadian legislatures. It is no longer a question of submitting the bill for the approval of parliament, but of imposing the CAQ vision by authority. The reform of Bill 101 will thus be exempted from articles 1 to 38 of the Quebec Charter. The “caquist nationalism” has spoken. It will be impossible to challenge the law, even if it infringes the freedoms of conscience, opinion, expression…
authoritarian nationalism
It is not a question here of judging the policies of the prime minister, but of identifying his doctrine of governance, his modus operandi. Also, “caquist nationalism” is expressed with the subtlety of a tank and pays little attention to democracy and civil liberties. We are barely beginning to measure the damage of this “authoritarian nationalism”, but we already know that the Quebec of tomorrow will suffer from the trivialization of recourse to the derogation provision and the weakening of the Charters, which until now constituted the best guarantee against State abuse.